India has retaliated against the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick when he states that the trade agreement between the two nations had stalled due to a lack of a call by the Prime Minister of India to President Donald Trump.
The talks did not materialize, and Trump imposed Indian goods tariffs as well, 50 percent, and a penalty on the purchase of Russian oil in August.
Both parties are now once again negotiating a deal but there is no tangible indication that it will happen and a number of informal deadlines have been missed.
Core issues have not been resolved yet – such as that of agriculture. Washington has been urging to have larger access to the farm sector of India, but Delhi has ruthlessly sought to defend it.
Nevertheless, Lutnick indicated at the start of the deal that a deal was about to be closed.
“It was all set up. On my side said I to the Indian side, you have to have Modi call the president. They did not like doing it so Modi did not call, Lutnick said in a podcast posted on Friday.
The White house is yet to respond to the claims by Lutnick.
India, however, indicated on Friday that the description of the talks between Delhi and Washington in the statements given by Lutnick was not true.
The bilateral trade accord between India and the US was a major agreement between both parties that had been agreed upon way back in 13 February last year. Since that time, both parties have conducted repeated series of negotiations in order to reach a tied-down and win-win trade agreement. We have been nearly at an agreement a few times ago,” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of the foreign ministry, told journalists.
He also said that there are eight phone calls between Modi and Trump last year which talked over various issues related to our extensive partnership.
On the All-In Podcast, a business and technology podcast in which four venture capitalists are the hosts, Lutnick stated that the Trump philosophy of striking deals was a staircase – with the first stair having the best deal.
He noted that India was the second nation which had entered into negotiation with the US on a trade deal after the UK and that Washington had given Delhi three Fridays to seal the deal. His involvement, Lutnick claimed, was to negotiate the contracts and to make the entire arrangement but it turned out that Trump closed them down and that India had failed to make the phone call set-up and that this led to the trouble of the agreement.
He further added that subsequently US struck a series of deals with other states such as Indonesia and Vietnam.
He also mentioned that in case India returned later claiming that they were ready to take the first offer, the train had already left the station.
However, it is not clear what deal India failed to reach, as Lutnick argues. An example of this is agriculture, where Washington has been seeking to have more access to the farm sector in India, which has been viciously fought by Delhi.
During a visit to the senators in December, the United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer informed them that the Indian offer to the US had been the best ever. His explanation was also that India was a difficult nut to crack.
In recent days Trump also commented on India and Modi multiple times, making a threat to impose more tariffs in case of Delhi refuses to cease purchasing Russian oil.
Following the war in Ukraine, India increased its importation of oil that is cheap in Moscow. Delhi had justified that it had to consider the energy requirements of its huge population.
There have been reports that oil refiners in India were reducing their oil purchases in Moscow since the tariffs were introduced.
These remarks are made two days after the US Senator Lindsey Graham stated that Trump had given the green light to a penitentiary Russia sanctions bill that, in case congress pass it, could enable more intense secondary tariffs and sanctions on the nations that conduct business with Moscow.
On Friday, Jaiswal replied that the country had heard of the planned bill and was taking a closer watch of the turn of events but repeated India’s position regarding energy needs of its population.
India had a 50 percent tariff but its good exports to the US increased over 22 percent in November as compared to the same figure a year prior.
The tariffs and the rhetoric around it have placed a burden on the relationship between the US and India. The first of the world leaders to visit the White House after Trump got into power was Modi, with whom Trump has a warm relationship.
However, since that time the relationship worsened.
Delhi has again and again refuted by Trump that he brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after a four-day conflict in May. In June, India had indicated that Modi informed Trump that Delhi would never agree to accept any third party intervention on the Kashmir matter with Pakistan.
The two leaders have since that time spoken a couple of times on the phone, in September, Trump called to congratulate the start of the birthday of Modi.
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